Fourteenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions

The fourteenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions will be held online from 1 to 6 February 2021, from 12:30 to 15:30 (Central European Time).

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on cultural and creative industries. Around the world, lockdown measures have significantly affected the livelihoods of artists and cultural professionals, while reducing cultural production and access to a diverse range of cultural expressions.

In this context, and in celebration of the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, which was declared by the United Nations General Assembly, the Committee will consider major issues related to the Convention that have been brought to the forefront by the COVID-19 pandemic: the status of artists and cultural professionals, the protection of the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital environment, and preferential treatment for cultural goods and services.

The Committee will also consider new funding requests submitted to the International Fund for Cultural Diversity in the framework of its 11th call for applications, and reflect on the current and future functioning of this fundamental mechanism to implement the Convention. The fourteenth session of the Committee will also examine a preliminary analysis of the ResiliArt movement, launched by UNESCO on 15 April 2020 to sound the alarm on the impact of the global health crisis on the cultural and creative sector, and now embraced by more than 100 countries across all regions of the world.

Several notable side events will take place:

• The celebration of the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development will take place on 1 February with messages by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, Volkan Bozkir, President of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly and representatives of partner United Nations agencies. This celebrations aims to reaffirm the central role of cultural industries within the creative economy and UNESCO’s commitment to promote the creative economy through inter-agency cooperation.
• “ResiliArt: Through the lens of Asian Filmmakers” will be hosted on 2 February, with the participation of the film directors Bora Kim and Naomi Kawase and with HyunMin Kim (Film journalist) as moderator.
• “Making of ‘Parasite’ : Dialogue with the producer” will be hosted on 3 February, with the producer of the film “Parasite”, Kwak Sin-ae with Hye-ri Kim (Film critic) as moderator.
• On 4 February, a second high level debate “ResiliArt in celebration of the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development - Building Back Better through Creative Economy” will bring together various prominent actors of the creative industry and address how to rebuild the cultural and creative economy in the aftermath of COVID19.